Wednesday, 14 August 2013

DIY Weapons In Syria - The Syrian Opposition Deploys Their Latest And Largest DIY Munition

Towards the end of May, a new DIY weapon began to appear in Syria, dubbed the "Hell Cannon" by the Syrian opposition. The warhead was a propane gas cylinder loaded with explosives, and since May it's become an increasingly popular weapon among the opposition, with multiple videos of them shown in action being posted online.

Following the success of the Hell Cannon it appears members of Liwa Ahrar Sorya (Free Men of Syria Brigade) have decided to make an even more powerful version, dubbed the Sayidna Omar Gun, referring to Omar Bin AlKhattab, the second Caliph). The following video was posted online a couple of days ago, showing Colonel Aqidi, a senior member of the FSA, being shown the opposition's latest innovation in DIY weapon technology

This was then followed by a second video giving a clearer view of the munition

It's claimed that the weapon is 4 meters long, weighs 250kg, with 120kg of TNT loaded into the warhead, with a range of 500-3500m. This next video gives a clear view of the weapon being fired, along with the launching platform

The launch platform has been welded to the bucket of a digger, providing it with a great deal of stability, although it's possibly this is a temporary solution before a launch platform is built from scratch for the munition. This video was reportedly filmed in Zahra, in the west of Aleppo, which would put a number of military bases in range of the weapon. A fourth video shows a close up of the launch platform

It would appear one advantage of welded it to the bucket is being able to use the digger to angle the launch platform, something that might save time when setting up the weapon, and probably makes loading the weapon less difficult.